Agents: Frames of Reference
by Stormhawk
Summary: Not all the rebels in the real world like it out there. Meet the crew of The Exodus. And Stevie hates it on the Neb, what's she going to do about it?
1. Exiles, the kid and the hippy

**Title: **Frames of Reference

**Author: **Stormhawk

**Rating: **PG

**Disclaimer: **(This is for the whole fic so I don't have to do it at the start of each chapter.)

The original Matrix universe and associated characters: Wachowski Brothers. Duh.

Agents universe: co-owned by me and Overlord Mordax

Stef, Stevie, Hummer, Nathaniel, Charlie, Jonas, Carol and the crew of the Exodus: Me

Greer, Rom and Recruit Anne as well as the saying 'programs are people too' and the game VWS: Overlord Mordax

Yami: Rogue McAllister

TMNT: someone, not me. 

Star Trek: Brainchild of Gene Roddenberry 

**Notes: **Speaking of Yami, you should check out the new pic on Deviant Art by Yami's creator. And don't forget to look at the rest of Mordax's art while you're there. Yes, I'm shamelessly advertising the site but the art is so cool. The link is on Mordax's page.

While you're at it, go join the board. Link on my page.

Do we have anyone out there that can program games or can suggest a good (preferably downloadable) program? Cause we really want to play Virtual World Smackdown.

This fic is in chapters but it's been uploaded in its entirety because it was way to big to upload as one.****

**Whole Story Word Count: **21269****

**This chapter: **3206****

**Summary: **Not all the rebels are happy with the real world. Some want to come back into the Matrix. Meet the crew of the Exodus. 

**Please Read and Review.**

"So that's why…" Stef started to say as a small paint covered child ran up to her and Smith as they walked down the street.

"Hello," the multicolored imp said.

"Hi," she said with a smile. The little boy broke out in a broad smile; his gentle brown eyes were shining. "What a cutie," she said to Smith as he looked down in distaste at the small urchin.

"I'm lost," the apparently human child said.

"So?" the older agent said, the rebel had really pissed him off today, or at least that was what Stef believed to be wrong with him, the truth was a far greater problem than any number of rebels.

"Don't you have any compassion?" she asked, playfully slapping him on the arm – though he had raised a daughter he still had problems dealing with kids. Smiling lopsidedly, "we have to help him."

"You can, don't be long. I'm going back and don't forget about the conference in twenty-one minutes."

"Do I ever?"

"Would you like me to list every time you have arrived late?"

"Not really, don't worry – I'll be on time." Nodding, he shifted from sight. Looking down at the small child she took the time to take in his clothes. A blue tie-dyed shirt and faded green pants, the seeming three-year-old had a bandana tied around his neck and his light red hair was unkempt.

Boy he reminded her of someone. "You've got to be related to Hummer." He nodded furiously, "ok, I can take you back." Hummer was a kooky, beach blond hippy-surfer, stuck in the sixties and the eighties. Exactly the kind of friend she needed. He was an exiled program; his original function had been to look after, govern was the right word, humming birds – hence the name Hummer. That was cool, she had known Hummer in an alternate history – one that had been erased and nullified thanks to Jonas – and though she had only known Hummer for a couple of days in that history she wasn't ready to lose him as a friend in the real world.

Not that this was the real world, this was the Matrix. But then again, the real world was dead and only the stupid rebels lived out there.

Stupid rebels and Stevie Smith. 

Poor Stevie, Smith's human daughter – part of one of the mainframe's humanity experiments, helping them to blend in with humans better; whenever she thought about those experiments she had a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that something was wrong…suspicious about them.

Considering that human behavior was a bad thing for agents to display.

Even if they had been human to begin with. 

Strange, but as Brown was so fond of saying, no one questions the mainframe. 

The mainframe had been a human…maybe, she wondered if that was the truth or just something that Jonas had made up, she had always imagined the mainframe to just be a machine but in that alternate history she had met him, he had been a jerk, he had designed the Matrix two hundred years ago, the only human willing to work with the machines at the time. 

But for her that was in the 'whatever' category, he was high and mighty, hiding and watching over his world, sending Clarke to issue his orders. Most likely he was real but instead of ruling the matrix, he merely looked over it, seeing the result of his brainchild – that was why there was thousands of programs to look after each part of the matrix.

But over the years, some had been replaced or not needed anymore, enter the exiles.

Rogue programs that had not accepted their deletion and chosen instead to hide in the system, living out their immortal lives. 

Hummer spray painted as a hobby but had a job at McDonalds. Others were far less normal, in some cases it was because they had less than human appearances. Every story about aliens, bigfeet, monsters, vampires and the like could be true, depending if the person telling it had actually seen something.

In many cases they were exiles.

She knew as she had met a pair of ghosts, albino twins, One and Two. British accents and silver clothes they were honest-to-Jonas ghosts. 

They worked as bodyguards to The Merovingian. 

Ah, Mero…the memories. A self-proclaimed king among the exiles, he was very old, very powerful and very French. It was his language of fascination; he especially loved to swear in it every single time that something went wrong. He had many exiles working for him and was married to one. Persephone.

Persephone, since Mero was the king would be the queen. Jonas, with his imaginary flair had called her 'the white queen' and despite it sounded like something the Alice-in-Wonderland-high Morpheus would say it seemed to fit.

Stef felt sorry for Persephone, Merovingian was so obsessed with money and power that she was often forgotten about, and it was a well-known fact among his guards that he regularly cheated on her. 

Shaking herself out of her depressive funk she knew Persephone wasn't helpless, she was as good at playing power games as her husband and the French man was going to learn that one day. What a good day that was going to be. 

The kingdom of the exiles.

A secret people, the exiles had plenty to fear. As powerful as they could be and despite their abilities exiles could be killed.

Agents killed exiles. 

A fact she had almost become _very_ aware of herself in that alternate history. Yes it had been dark in that room because of the power outage and he had thought she was dead but he had almost killed her. The image of a rage-filled Smith beating the life from her was not an easy image to forget. And Jonas hadn't planned on bringing her back. 

_It didn't happened, just forget about it_, she thought to herself.

After the history had been erased, she had sought out Hummer. Since she was an agent this time around it had taken her a little while, but only a little while because it was Hummer, to convince him that she had no intention of killing him and wanted to be his friend.

Though he had his serious side, Hummer was for the most part a very big kid. How he had a kid was beyond her. He hadn't had one when she had met him the first time around. Maybe it wasn't his, how could it be? It was 'digilogically'…the word had to do with the humanness of programs, perceptions of the senses and reactions like crying and throwing up…digilogically impossible for programs to have children, so far as she knew anyway. 

What would be the point? Programs are designed with purposes in mind and not for evolution beyond those parameters, children were most likely not in the picture.

"What's your name anyway?" she asked the kid as they walked down the street toward one of the special doors. 

"Nathaniel." 

Stef smirked, that was the last thing she had expected. "That name is bigger than you." Again, he nodded. He was a very quiet kid. Strange, people his age were usually bursting with energy.

That was of course, if he was human. 

Agents can see the difference between humans and other programs, a kind of static if they look closer. With other agents it is cancelled out but is amplified when it comes to exiles. It helps agents to track them so that can destroy them.

If this kid was a program, why hadn't Smith said something? Maybe he was just distracted, something had been bothering him. Scanning the kid he came out as…kind of nothing. Human if you didn't look too close and unknown if you looked too close.

Strange, she'd have to ask the hippy.

She would never kill an exile. She had been one of them. She understood them, all they wanted to do was live, not be deleted by the system that had created them. Not that it mattered; it was usually the combat agents that dealt with them. In this Agency's case that would be Brown. 

There were hundreds of agencies all over the world. Was the world like this before the humans and machines had started the war centuries ago? 

Probably, machines love details. The major continents had been digitized, allowing the world to function as it had all that time ago, even though the billions of inhabitants were all plugged into the power plants connected to a worldwide virtual reality world. 

That's what the rebels were fighting. They believed that the humans were better of in the real world just because it was the truth. The truth could suck. An endless dead desert was all that was left of the real world, and one city near the earth's core. Who in their right mind would want to live out there?

Her theory was that they were all…deranged was a good word to use.

Especially Anderson, the scourge of the Agency. Their worst enemy. The rebellion called him 'the one' for some reason, apparently – from what they had gathered from their prisoners – he was supposed to end the war.

Good luck Anderson.

He'd need it.

Turning and walking down an alley Nathaniel followed her. They were headed toward the backdoors. The best kept secret of the exiles. Their safe passages and escape routes from the agents, their quick path from one point of the matrix to another. 

If the agents…the other agents of course, found out about them there would be a lot less exiles to worry about.

Charlie would have to work overtime. Charlie was the Grim Reaper, Death. But he thought black robes were passé so he donned casual clothing. He gave the programs who had become obsolete or attempted to be deleted The Choice.

As heavy a decision as Red Pill or Blue Pill but nowhere near as hard, it was only the choice between life and death. Ha, was there even a choice? No, everyone wanted to live.

Requiring her key, the key to the backdoors from her office to her hand she pushed it into the lock of the abandoned door and twisted it. She had to keep it in her office, as it was unable to be copied, she had tried countless times to require it to copy itself to no avail. 

Opening the door they were exposed to the shocking repetitiveness that was the back doors. An endless hall of identical white doors. God knows how anyone ever found the right door but somehow they managed.

One door was easier to find than the others. Hummer's door.

It would have something to do with the peace sign stickers on it. They were the dead giveaway. Nathaniel smiled as soon as he saw the door.

Reaching out to knock on the door she stopped when she heard voices. Looking up as a door a little down the eternal hall she saw Mero, Persephone and the Twins walk out into the hall. Probably coming from the restaurant where the king did all of his business, trafficking information and whatnot. 

The Merovingian stopped in mid sentence he looked down the hall to see the female agent. She was five and half feet tall with short brown hair, the standard suit that they all wore but her coiled earpiece was lying down on her collar. 

"What…? Who…? How…?" the last thing he had expected was to see an agent in the hall, it couldn't be a good thing. Stef smirked and held up her key. "Whom did you steal that from?"

"I didn't steal it from anyone. It was given to me."

"You're an agent," Persephone said calmly, giving the pasty ghost bodyguards a pointed look, both nodded and silently prepared themselves for a fight. There was a great deal of silent communication between the two, though they were most defiantly two different people, not the same person split in two as many thought.  

"Yes, I'm an agent." With that confirmed, Mero nodded at his guards.

"I don't time to fight ghosts at the moment," she said calmly as they went see-through.

"Afraid are you?" he teased.

"Unlikely. No, I'm babysitting and I don't want to expose the kid to violence," she said as she stepped aside and let them see Nathaniel who had hidden behind her as soon as he had seen them come through the door.

"What is that?" the powerful exile asked, expecting some sort of agent trickery.

"It's a kid Mero," she answered sardonically with a sigh.

"You…know who I am?" he said confused but at the same time flattered that one of his, albeit many, enemies knew his name. 

"But of course," she responded in a blatant mockery of his own accent. "The Merovingian, Persephone and One and Two," she said nodding to the ghosts.

"Since you know who we are we should have the same privilege."

"I thought you knew everything."

"Given time I can know everything and anything about everyone and everything. I know what you are but so far your name has eluded me."

"Agent Mim, you found him," Hummer said with the glee of a happy child as he opened his door.

"Mim?" Merovingian asked incredulously, such a low class name – even for an agent.

"It's Mimosa. Mim is a nickname."

"I see."

Turning away from the others, she looked at the surfer. "Hummer is this kid yours?"

"Nah, I'm just watching him for a friend. Nat's a new generation of program."

"What are you talking about? A new exile – a second generation replacement?"

"Nothing doin' dudette. This kids isn't an exile he's just a kid. He's an experiment by an exile, a programmer as a matter of fact is running an algorithm to make us indistinguishable from humans."

"Why would we want that Humming Bird?"

"Just shut up and listen Mero. Part of…most of what makes us easy for the agents to see…no offense kitty, present company is excluded," she nodded, "we light up like Christmas trees to them. This is how they catch us. If he can take that away we can hide forever. They will have to look for us, not just see us."

"Well, that does seem like a good thing. Does it work, Agent?"

"Yes."

"Then in that case you must send this exile to me."

"I'll ask him if he wants to talk to you."

"He will come to see me Hummer or I will send these two to bring him in."

"Want a drink Mim?" Hummer said, ignoring the other program.

"Sure," she said with a nod. Hummer walked back into his house so Stef and Nat followed. Hummer shook his head and pushed some blond hair out of his eyes. Nat waved hi to him then walked into the spare room that had been converted to a bedroom for the child. 

"Usual?" 

"Usual."

"Orange juice coming up," he said as he pulled the carton from the fridge. Turning around she pulled two glasses from the cupboard and placed them on the kitchen counter. "So Nat's programming works? Or were you bull-pooping to Mero?"

"Dead serious dude. Smith thought he was some human kid."

"Ok, Smith is the stupid one isn't he?"

"Hummer!" she said, even though she knew he was joking.

"Joking kitty," 'pretty kitty' was a nickname he had for her for no particular reason, he loved rhyming nicknames. It was just a Hummer thing. 

"Brown is the stupid one. Jones is the geek, Smith is Smith."

"You got any free time or you got to run? I was going to take Nathaniel to the park, you could come with."

"Shit, I would if I could – I have to get back. Blame Mero for interrupting."

"I hate the Merovingian."

"Are you ever going to tell me the real reason or stick with 'I hate him cause Charlie hates him'?"

"Maybe one day kitty. Not yet. Curiosity killed the cat."

"That's ok, everyone has their secrets," she said as she put her earpiece back in. Immediately it crackled to life.

^Mimosa where are you? The conference starts in forty-five seconds. You know Clarke is never late.^ she could just image the bored look on his face as he sat in his standard chair in the conference room.

Pressing two fingers to her earpiece she swallowed the rest of her juice before answering him. "Fine, I'm coming." Smiling at Hummer she called goodbye to Nathaniel before shifting away. Articulating the shift, she landed sitting in her chair. Shifting slightly, she saw the suspicious look of Agent Brown.

"Where were you this time?"

"Chasing an exile Brown. It got away from me." Nothing more was said as they all turned to the head of the table as Clarke shifted in. The mouth-of-the-mainframe delivered one of his trademarked boring speeches. He had no chance of evolution, he had next to no subroutines – if any at all – he was merely an extension of the mainframe.

Brown was only slightly suspicious in her interest in the exiles. Then again, he was suspicious of everything she did. He didn't trust her as far as, proverbially, he could throw her. Taking care of the exiles was his job. It was the one thing that the combat did better than the command or technical agents could, he was an efficient killer.

Probably the best there was among the ranks of agents. 

After Clarke was finished, he looked to the agents. "Any queries?" All of the agents, of this agency and the others, were mutations of a single form, each was unique but in ways similar. They all looked exactly like stereotypical government officials, which wasn't far from the truth. This way, no one suspected them of being computer programs.

Plain, able to blend in without drawing attention. 

That was the way it had always been, it was the way it always would be.

Each agent was distinct; they had their own features, a shade lighter or darker of their hair, their builds, stuff like that. Clarke was different, indistinct was probably the best word to use, his face wasn't deformed by any stretch of the word, more it was devoid of features. He didn't have a face; he had a living theatre mask. 

"What of project 002?" Smith asked suddenly.

"That is not for querying at this point in time. Any other queries?"

No one had anything else to ask…to ask Clarke anyway…so he shifted away. There was an exceedingly uncomfortable silence.

"Fine, I'll bite since no one else is going to do it. What's project 002?"

Brown's nostril's flared; he didn't look unlike an angry bull. "We will learn the details when the mainframe chooses," pushing his chair out from the table he paced from the room.  

"Well?"

"It's nothing," she knew it wasn't nothing – it was probably what had been bothering him all morning but she nodded and left. 

After Stef's footsteps had disappeared down the hall Jones turned to Smith, his green eyes full of worry behind his sunglasses. "Why would the mainframe be initiating 002?"

"It may not be."

"Let us hope not."

"It won't be good for us if it does go ahead." Jones nodded in agreement.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hope you liked the first chappie. What the hell is Project 002? You won't find out this fic, don't flame me – the foreshadowing is well worth it. I promise.


	2. The Exodus

**Title: **Frames of Reference: Chapter Two

**Author: **Stormhawk

**Rating: **PG

**Notes: **Not this time.****

**Word Count: **3231****

**Please Read and Review.**

One week later.

"Exit," Cray mumbled to himself. "Just get to the exit." Fifteen-year-old Cray, a rebel with blue dyed hair, at least in the Matrix, had been in there to set up a meeting with a potential. The set up had gone awry when his cell had rung and Galli – the operator on his ship, The Exodus – had told him that an agent was tracking him.

He was so close to the phone now he could hear it ringing. Running toward the door and flinging it open he saw a most unwelcome sight.

It was the agent.

"What took you so long, you get lost or something?" Stef said as she sat cross-legged on the table next to the phone twirling her Desert Eagle on her finger.

"Shit," Cray said as he slumped against the wall. He didn't try and run, he was too slow and he didn't even think about fighting the agent, they were all too strong.

Hang on…she? "I thought all the agents were guys," he mumbled. 

"They are, except me."

"Um…um." He stumbled, trying to think of something that would let him live. Fat chance.

"I'm going to kill you," Stef said as she slid off the table. "You know that right?"

"Please, just let me answer the phone. I don't want to die," he said pathetically. 

"No." she said then the phone stopped ringing. "Seems they've given up on you."

"They wouldn't…I'm one of them."

"Humans have no problems leaving each other behind," she said evenly – if Morpheus and his gang hadn't abandoned her on that night she would have never become a recruit or agent. She would be living in the real world - or dead, killed by one of the people she now called her allies. No, she would have lived the real world for a little while then died because her real world body was imperfect – it had come from a bad crop. 

Cray's cell phone rang. "Can I answer it please?"

"Finally, a last request that doesn't involve 'please don't kill me' you've got one minute."

His hands trembling, Cray fished his phone from his pocket answered it. "Hello? Galli is that you?"

On the Exodus, Galli the operator was going insane. The extremely pale man with contrasting black hair was pacing hurriedly holding the headset on his head with both his hands. He didn't want Cray to die.

"Kid, give the phone to the agent."

"Are you insane Galli?"

"Do it Cray, I don't want to lose you."

Cray smiled up at Stef who was going 'tick tock, tick tock' as she counted his minute down. "He wants to talk to you." Sneering, she swiped the phone from the young rebel.

"Agent Mimosa, what do you want? Be quick cause I hate talking to rebels."

"Don't kill the kid. Please, we'll give you anything you want."

Anything? Well, in that case… "Access codes to the Zion mainframe," she said automatically. It would tip the scales of the war in their favor. It would help them to win.

Galli breathed a sigh of relief. "Hang on, I don't have them. I'm just the operator. Let me get the captain." Punching up the PA system, he had to beat it with his fist twice before it worked. "Captain, captain get up here."

"Coming," the voice of the captain responded from the engine room. 

"Galli – what's wrong," a young white-haired girl asked as she came up onto the main deck and looked at his frantic expression. He pulled the headset from his head and stared at her serious.

"Niq, your brother's in there and there's an agent with him."

"Oh god. Get him out of there."

"Relax, she's waiting to talk to the captain."

Niq hugged her chest tight and walked up to the screens to watch over her younger brother. She was two years older than him and they had been freed together. "Please let him be ok," she breathed.

Captain Ryder, his girlfriend Pandora, the engineer Phoenix and Darth the programmer all came up to the main deck from the engine room. Exodus' engines were forever breaking down. Then again, they were the misfit ship, not even included in the fleet because of its condition.

"What's the problem Galli?" Ryder asked. A strong but gentle man in his early thirties, he had light red hair for in the Matrix he had been born to Scottish parents but only faint traces of his accent remained in the real world after a decade and a half of freedom.

"That's the problem," he said jabbing his finger at the screen.

"What does it want?"

"To talk to you sir," he said handing over the headset.

"Captain Ryder speaking. Who am I speaking to?"

"Mimosa but let us dispense with the pleasantries, Zion codes for the Smurf's life. That's the deal."

Ryder pulled the headset from his head and stamped the deck, "damn," he said under his breath. "Damn it to hell."

"I'm waiting for an answer, captain. Do we have a deal?"

"I don't have the codes Agent Mimosa. The commander never gave me the codes."

"Then I'm afraid we have nothing more to discuss," Stef said as she leveled her gun at him. 

"NO!" Niq shrieked and yanked the headset from Ryder. "Don't you dare kill him!"

"Whom am I talking to now?" Stef said tiredly, these rebels were getting on her nerves.

"My name's Niq, please don't kill my brother. I know you can't possibly understand compassion, that's too human for you but if you have to kill a rebel, let me come in and you can take me instead."

"Niq – no," Pandora said, she couldn't let her sacrifice herself, they would find some other way to save Cray.

"This is war Niq, what else can you offer me besides the codes?"

Niq looked around the room helplessly, no one had anymore of an idea than she did. "A favor," she said suddenly. "We can owe you a favor."

"Ooh," said Stef is false amazement. "A favor, from some rebels – how wonderful." Niq's face began to crumple; she knew her brother was going to die if she couldn't think of something soon.

 Darth, a twenty-four year old programmer, with a strong but lanky frame, gentle aqua eyes and longish light brown hair clicked his fingers. "The d-base, give her a copy of the d-base."

Niq nodded, "a copy of our ship's database. And the favor – is that good enough?"

Stef nodded, she knew they could see her. "That will do." For the first time since he entered the room Cray was able to breathe again, sucking in deep lungs of air he was glad they weren't going to be his last.

"Thank you, thank you so much," he blubbered. 

"How do we get the d-base to you?" Niq asked. 

"The same way you send one of you in, just send it along the carrier wave, I'll pick up the phone and…catch it."

"Ok," Niq said and gave the headset back to Ryder. Darth sat down in Galli's spot and typed in some commands, a few minutes later the phone rang and Stef picked it up. Listening to the modem-like sounds she received a copy of their entire d-base. 

An influx of information was like the code addiction – the mainframe access – but it was nowhere near as dangerous. 

After listening for a few minutes she had it sitting safely inside her code. Nodding to Cray she almost smirked. "Get out of here Smurf." 

When the phone rang again he lifted the handset and pressed it to his ear and disappeared from the Matrix. Stef put away her gun and shifted away.

Moments later, Niq pulled the spike from her brother's neck and hugged him tightly. "Glad to have you back," Galli said warmly.

"Me too Cray, you almost didn't make it back," Ryder added. Pandora and Phoenix nodded. Darth was busy rewinding the recorded code of the incident.

"Same here," he said distracted, brushing some hair from his eyes.

"That bitch was going to kill you," Niq said. "Goddamn program – I hate them."

"She let me live. I'm still alive."

"Only because we now owe it a favor and gave it all of our information."

"She could have killed me."

"It would have Cray, stop being so naïve," his sister practically shouted.

"I am not naïve, I'm alive but I do need some sleep. Or maybe something to eat."

"Come on kid," Phoenix said, "I'll get you some slop."

"Great," he muttered.

"Did you eat while you were in there?" Pandora asked him.

"Just a happy meal, I was waiting for that potential but they never showed up then that agent did."

"She's one very strange agent," Darth remarked, more to himself than them.

"How so?" Ryder asked.

"Well, she's a woman for one thing. Whoever heard of a female agent?"

"Me actually," Phoenix said. "Whenever I'm fixing the engines I listen to the rabble over the low band – it helps me to concentrate – like my music when I owned my garage, and the Neb complained last week about Mimosa, which was that agent Cray just dealt with."

"Nebuchadnezzar," Ryder said with distaste. "The best ship in the fleet, we must bow down to them. Home of Morpheus and the one."

"Ry," Pandora said gently.

"Come on Pandora, it's all in good fun. Look, I'm Neo – I can fly, I crash into buildings and tear up street signs but no one cares because I am the ONE!" Ryder finished with a flourish. "They think he's so special so they give his ship special treatment while we are left to rot."

"No to mention that Zion is always forgetting about us," Galli said. I asked for docking clearance last time we were going in to recharge and I had to send out ID twice before they would believe who we were."

"Speaking of which, you'll have to set a course Galli. The engines won't last more than a day with power levels like these."

"Fine," Galli said, pushing Darth out of the way. "Go use the computer in your room. Me and the Smurf took a risk when we stole that for you so go use it."

"Ok," Darth said. "Why would an agent say 'Smurf'?"

"Who knows and who cares?" Niq said. "It's just a program."

"Maybe not, it wasn't reading like a normal agent."

"Advanced programming, new model – who cares?" the blond rebel remarked and followed the rest of the crew toward the mess while Galli steered the slow but mostly reliable ship toward the last free human city.

Which the crew didn't consider home as the rest of the rebellion did.

*****

Stef had shifted back to the Agency and walked a short distance to Jones' office, well he was the tech agent so who else would the d-base go to?

Knocking on the door she heard two voices, Jones and Greer. Stef shrugged to herself, must be another experiment with Greer's power, after all no one wanted the recruit, who was turning out to be one of the most efficient they had ever had, to turn out like the Edmund twins did.

"Come in," Jones' soft voice said.

Twisting the knob she walked in and required a copy of the d-base onto CD for him. "You might be interested in this," she said. 

"What is it?"

"A copy of rebel ship d-base."

"Interesting," he said accepting the CD. "Thank you."

"Welcome, how are the experiments coming?"

She could have sworn Jones paled a couple of shades. "Experiments?"

"With Greer's power?"

"Actually, we weren't conducting an experiment," he said slowly.

"We were playing Virtual World Smackdown," Greer said with a grin. 

Jones nodded, "a game I designed," he said self-consciously but the color had returned to his face. 

"I've played it." Stef smiled – it was good game – then she turned and left.

"You just lied Greer," Jones said with a smile.

"Did you want to tell her what we were really doing?" Greer answered with a grin. "But since it came up, how about a game of VWS?"

"Always," the tech agent said and forgot about the rebel d-base sitting on his desk as he opened the hidden file that contained his game.

*****

As with the last time they were in Zion, Galli had to send the ID twice before the defenses were taken down and the gates were opened. 

The Exodus was a misfit ship with a misfit crew. One of the older ships it had been pulled back into service for Ryder. He had requested it, he wanted his own ship. The real world was the truth, yes but sometimes the truth was a hard thing. 

There were none of the conveniences of home, real home back in the matrix. The ships were always cold, the food pathetic and tasteless. And his ship was forever breaking down, no matter how good an engineer Phoenix was the only thing holding the Exodus together was the hopes and dreams of his crew.

He loved his crew, they were a family. Ryder had been friends with Galli since he had been freed, he had met Pandora soon after and they had been together ever since. Darth had come next and instead of sending him to Zion, they had just kept him. The same for Cray and Niq.

The only thing that bothered him was the fact that the rest of the humans in the resistance forget about them. They had freed mines and fought the war like everyone else. What had done to deserve this?

Their ship was always the last to be worked on by the repair crews, luckily they didn't have to wait around for it to be recharged, all they had to do was plug it in when they landed. 

But most of the time they spent away from Zion, they preferred it out there, even if it was more dangerous, with the sentinels and the like. At least out there they were free to do what they wanted. They did things none of the other crews did, they plugged in for real meals – even if they were still hungry when they got out they had the memory of a hot meal. They jacked in to do normal things, things that they missed because they were impossible to do in the real world.

They accepted the truth, that didn't mean they like the real world.

None of the crew would have been happy living the rest of their lives without the truth but what if there had been some other choice between ignorance and the desert?

What if? The two worst words ever paired.

All the alternates, the paths not taken, the choices.

Red or blue.

Red, forever red but they missed having soft beds and meals that you had to chew.

Red or blue.

God what a choice.

Packing their small bags as they walked down the ramp the crew of the next ship, a sleek newer generation hovercraft called the Medusa snickered quietly.

"Hey Ryder, that rust bucket still going?"

"Remind me to bring some chewing gum back so you can keep the engine in place."

As their comments continued Phoenix's face turned redder and redder. Finally she dropped her stuff and started to march toward them. Galli and Pandora caught her and dragged her away. They weren't worried for her, she could defend herself, they were worried for the other crew, they didn't want them ending up in the medical facility.

It might warrant their ship being taken away from them. A chance they were not willing to take. A price they were unwilling to pay.

*****

Smith sat in his office, he was supposed to be doing the equivalent of paperwork, filing reports to the mainframe and checking on the progress of the recruits and the like. 

Instead, he was deep in thought.

He missed Stevie; he wanted nothing more than to have her back in the Matrix where he could watch over her. But instead she was out in the real world. Damn it. 

And nothing was ever going to change that; she would be out there until the end of her days. It hurt him to realize that she wasn't an immortal, that one day she was going to die. He wouldn't be able to go on after that, she meant too much to him. 

Then there was Project 002.

That was something he really didn't want to think about. Maybe it was nothing to worry about, he had only accidentally come across the file when he was searching for information using direct mainframe access. He saw the access as a tool, not something to get addicted to. 

Addictions were a mistake. 

002. What cause could the mainframe have for initiating it? 

*****

"I want you with me on this Pandora. I won't do this without you."

"It's suicide Ryder."

"I know but I'm sick of this war, you are too, so is the crew. We can escape it."

"We need Zion, the charge only lasts so long, the engines will stop working after a while. Then we'll be helpless."

"Please Pandora. I can't take it here anymore."

"I love you Ryder. Can you tell me it's going to be all right?"

"It's not suicide, I can tell you that. It's our chance."

"Chance to what exactly? To get killed by the sentinels? If the resistance catches us they'll execute us or throw us in the cells for the rest of our lives."

"Please Pandora."

"I'm with you to the end. I'll follow you."

"Thank you."

The next day, after the Exodus was recharged, it left Zion for the last time. Fight or flight, and they had chosen flight, they were sick of the fight.

Three hours later, when The Exodus was far out of Zion the council sat had an emergency assembly to listen to a recorded message that Ryder had made and Darth had programmed as a time bomb on the computer to release itself once they were safely away.

As one of the council members nodded, an assistant brought up the video file. The image flickered for a few seconds then played. It was Ryder standing on the bridge of his ship.

"For those of you who don't know me, I am captain Ryder of the Exodus. I've never thought much about the name of my ship but I don't think a name has ever been more appropriate – except maybe the Medusa, Captain Qwert you are a snake," the captain smirked at that, imaging the other captain's reaction. "Back to business. The reason it is a well chosen name is because are leaving Zion and never coming back."

He paused for a moment, knowing there would a few seconds of disorientation, after all no one had ever done this before.

"We have had enough of this war, enough of the cold hard reality of this world. I don't know what good it will do to leave but it will surely be better than what is here for us now. There's nothing keeping us here. Sayonara."

After a few seconds of disbelief among the other captains and the council members, one spoke up. A captain that never kept his peace. "Traitors," Morpheus said sadly. "How could they become traitors?"

"Don't worry Morpheus," Trinity said, "they won't last long without Zion."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Well, what do you think about the new characters? I hoped I haven't used anybody's rebel names, if I have just tell me. 

If you're interested:

*Cray: A type of supercomputer.  

*Niq: Pronounced like the end of 'unique.'

*Galli: Named after Mr. Galliano, an Enid Blyton character

*Pandora: If you don't know the myth, she released the released the evils of the world out of her box. 

*Darth, um…if I have to tell you where that's from you must have been dead since before 1977. 

*Ryder just sounded like a captain's name.

*Phoenix, just a cool name.

The Exodus. Self-explanatory and explained just above. It was going to be called The Scope but this sounds better. Thanks Mordax!


	3. The deal

**Title: **Frames of Reference: Chapter Three

**Author: **Stormhawk

**Rating: **PG

**Notes: **Not this time.****

**Word Count: **3227****

**Please Read and Review.**

Two days later.

"Galli, land us. We have to work on the engines."

"Work Ryder?" Phoenix asked incredulously. "You have to be kidding me, these things are beyond repair. Outrunning that patrol has killed us. We're dead. The best we can hope for is powering up the COM grid and beg them to take us back."

"We can't do that Phee. They will execute us."

"We can beg for leniency, they will just lock us up." Phoenix, loyal to her captain had chosen to come along but no she was starting to regret that choice. 

"No."

"What about getting plugged back in?" Pandora unexpectedly suggested. 

"Would they do that?" 

"It will give them some batteries back. We can talk to an agent, appeal to their good side."

"What good side? Talk to an agent?" Niq almost shrieked. "Agents don't talk, agents kill."

"If we do nothing then we're dead. The engines are shot and whatever power we have left isn't going to last us forever."

"Was this a suicide mission sir?" Cray asked Ryder, he was the youngest member of the crew and too young, in his opinion to die. He and his sister had followed Ryder, the closest thing they had had to a father since they had been freed without question – he had never steered them wrong before.

"Don't get upset Cray. We will find some way out of this."

"Ok," he said with a firm nod. He wasn't going to lose faith in him now of all times, this was the time when they needed to keep their faith. They needed to believe that they were going to get out of this situation, that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, gold at the end of the rainbow – whichever metaphor you wanted to use.

Darth, who had been for the most part silent, looked up. "We talk to an agent, it's our only chance."

"Uh-huh," Galli said with a smile. "Any agent in particular?"

"Shut up Galli," true he had done nothing much else but analyze the recording of the incident since it had happened it was no reason to bring it up. "Besides at least she was willing to negotiate with us."

"Then we'll owe her another favor," Niq protested.

"Well, what do you suggest? Do you want to sit here and die?" Galli asked in all seriousness.

"No…but."

"No buts," the operator said, slapping his hand on the computer in front of him silencing the pale teenage girl.

Ryder nodded, "it's settled, Pandora and I will go in," he said with a nod to his girlfriend. Pandora was tall and slim, her hair was short and straight, her gentle Japanese features always made her look as though she had stepped right out of an anime or a magna comic. 

"I'm coming too," Darth said – he had no intention of being left behind while his captain and first officer were going to find that strangely programmed agent, she was a mystery he needed to solve.

"All right but no one else, we need to preserve all the juice we can in case this doesn't work. It's going to work though." A few moments after they sat in their chairs, it wasn't like this on most of the ships but on the Exodus each crewmember had their own chair. And just so there were no arguments – which were far and few between on this ship – they had their names scrawled onto them. 

Walking out of the old building, Ryder chuckled as he remembered Cray asking why most of the exits were in such buildings. The reason was so that no civilians saw them disappear from sight. But sometimes it would be nice to enter the matrix somewhere besides abandoned dumps and alleys. 

Walking down the alley, Pandora asked the two guys an obvious question. "Does anyone have any clue whatsoever how to contact an agent?"

"Not really," the captain admitted. "We can wait around here to be found."

"Or we could…"

"Were you people trying to get caught?" a voice asked from behind them – between them and the phone. "That was the most obvious hack in that I've ever seen. Your operator didn't even wait for the cycle to change."

They turned and saw Mimosa wielding her gun. "We wanted to talk to you actually." Ryder admitted, it was a strange thing to say – agents were their enemies, hopefully for not much longer but he could feel Pandora's fear radiating off her – the Japanese woman wanted to run.

She had a reason to be afraid of agents, she had been freed ten years ago and like Niq her brother was supposed to come with her. But unlike Cray, her brother Shell hadn't made it. 

"You wanted to talk to me?" she asked as if they had said something exceedingly strange, which in all fairness they had.

"Yes, but I refuse to talk while you are aiming a gun at me or my friends."

Suspiciously lowering her gun but secure in the knowledge she could take them out without her standard issue Desert Eagle she nodded. "Talk."

Ryder swallowed, "we want to get plugged back into the Matrix. We are sick and tired of the real world." It was the simplest way of stating the truth and this was no time for complications. Understandably she was taken back, she processed the request for a second before talking.

"You're kidding."

"Why would we kid about this to one of you?" Pandora asked, finally haven regained her composure and voice.

"You're from the Smurf's ship aren't you?"

"Yes, Cray is from my ship. My name is Ryder, this is Pandora and this is Darth."

Her eyes looked at the programmer, "Vader or Maul?"

He smiled, "Vader of course," the question helped to back up one of his theories as to what she was.

"Ok. You want to get plugged back in?"

"Yes can you do that?"

"It is possible but it's not my choice. I don't have any control over decisions over things like that."

"Then can you take us to the person…uh…program that does?" Pandora asked, shaking her hair, which was slightly longer in the Matrix, she kept it on the short side in the real world, as it was easier to manage.

"That would be my boss. Agent Smith."

"You have a boss?"

"Everyone needs a chain of command captain."

"Where is he?"

"The Agency, where else?"

"How do we get there, I'm assuming we can – it's not just a place for programs is it?"

"No, it's a physical building. We can walk or drive."

"We obviously don't have a car – do you?" with a secretive smile she nodded. A second later, a required car appeared. All of the rebels jumped back. Accepting it in the knowledge that the agents controlled the Matrix, Ryder opened the back door for Pandora who climbed in, Darth claimed the front passenger seat as Stef started the car.

"Can I put the radio on?" he asked her with a grin.

"No. You are still rebels so therefore it would be a good idea not to annoy me as I just might shoot you." Normally she wouldn't have been so harsh but the perpetual bad mood that Smith had been in since he had asked Clarke about Project 002 was starting to rub off on her. Not to mention that there hadn't been any new recruits – that had made it through the tests – in a few solid weeks. Damn the statistics for being right.

She hated when something was bothering him and she either couldn't help him or he wouldn't tell her. 

"Just relax Darth," Ryder ordered from the back seat. Things were going so far so good so there was no need to push their luck. After a relatively short drive, they pulled up outside the main door of the Agency. As they walked in through the glass doors she gave them one piece of advice. "Just watch what you say around him. You're just rebels."

All the guards rose from their newspapers and poker games as the rebels walked through the door. 

"Give them your weapons." 

"We aren't armed." This unlikely statement was proven true when they walked through the metal detector and were scanned clean. 

Unarmed rebels, what a day. "Fine – with me."

***

A knock on his door shook Smith from his deep thoughts, he'd been doing that a lot lately. "Come," he said to the door. 

"Oh, Stef. What can I…?" a slight shake of her head silenced him as three humans filed in behind her. "Who are they?"

"Rebels Smith. With an interesting request."

Stef and living rebels must be one hell of a request. "What is it?"

"We wish to get plugged back in."

"Oh?" it wasn't the first time he had been asked this, however the last time had been a monumental failure. Reagan had basically handed them Morpheus but that damn Anderson had rescued him. That was a day worth forgetting. 

Anderson had killed him that day.

It had taken the mainframe and Jones weeks to reassemble his code; it had been a painful experience. If they hadn't managed to put him back together who knows? He might still be floating in unconscious bits of data. Or he might be an exile; sometimes programs that are broken up escape deletion as their programs pull themselves back together. Theses programs can choose exile or deletion.

Agents have to choose deletion. Not that he ever would.

"We are sick of the war, sick of the cold and the goop. Can you put us back into the system?"

"It is possible – what do you have to offer in return?"

"With us plugged back in you'll have more batteries back."

"Access codes…"

"They don't have them Smith, I already asked."

"Is it just you three or your whole crew?"

"Everyone on the Exodus."

"That does make a difference. Come back tomorrow."

"We may not have enough power, our engines are stuffed. Our power grid is failing, we need an answer now."

"Come back tomorrow."

"But…"

"Ryder this is the point where you're pushing your luck," Stef said – warning the rebel as she could see Smith was itching to shoot someone.

"We'll come back tomorrow."

"Thank you," Pandora said gratefully. 

"Don't thank me yet."

"I'll escort you to an exit," Stef said as they walked out of his office. Ryder nodded and pulled out his cell as they walked from the building.

"Galli, got an exit ready for us?"

"Did it as soon as you were in Cap, Fourth and Saini." 

"We're on our way." 

"How'd it go? Are _you_ in?" Galli, being Zion born couldn't go into the Matrix. He didn't know if his best friend had considered it in this scenario. Maybe not, but knowing Ryder he would figure something out. They always did. 

"We'll talk about it when we're out."

"Fourth and Saini," Ryder said to Stef as he ended the call. Nodding, they all got back into the car. Pulling up near the phone box on the quiet street she required it away. Pandora exited first, then Ryder. As Darth was waiting for it to ring again, he leant on the side of the phone booth. 

"Why doesn't your code read like the other agents?"

She opened her mouth to snap a nasty comment at him, stopping herself when she realized that she actually didn't want to do that, even though he was just a human, she smirked. "Why should I tell you?"

"It's just a question, agent."

"Well, rebel, it's none of your business."

"You'll tell me one day. I know you will," leaning against the side of the booth, a smile played across his face. 

_Maybe not all humans are bad_, Stef thought to herself. _Shit! Where did that come from? He's just a human._

Smiling back, she shoved him lightly – not enough to hurt him but enough to knock him off balance. Stumbling, he fell against the phone, which they both had just realized had been ringing for a while now, grabbing the handset to stop himself from falling, he didn't hit the ground. The phone stopped ringing. Standing on his own two feet again he realized that he had pulled it free of the phone. It wasn't an exit anymore.

"Oh crap," he said. "Guess I'm going to gave to use another exit."

"Duh. Great." She muttered to herself as he pulled his phone out. 

"Operator, find me another exit."

"If you hadn't been…"

"Galli – another exit please."

"It'll take me about ten minutes to configure one. Go to the phone at the corner of Jayne and Parker."

"I'll be there, thanks."

"I am here to serve. Just remember to feed me." Chuckling, he dropped his phone back into his pocket. Unlike the rest of the rebellion, the crew of the Exodus didn't restrict themselves to black, ok Niq did but that was a fashion thing, Darth was wearing simply cut jeans and a loose shirt. His hair was the same in the Matrix as it was in the real world, brown and on the longish side. He didn't wear sunglasses unless it was an extremely bright day so his aqua eyes were exposed for the whole world to see. 

"Where's the new exit clumsy?"

"You pushed me. Jayne and Parker."

"That's only five minutes. We can walk."

"I don't need a babysitter," he said and had to stop himself from adding: 'not I mind.'

"You think I like watching rebels? I have to keep my eye on you incase you try something."

"And what would I try?"

Stef couldn't help but smile, it was a joke but it almost sounded like a line. But since he was talking to her that was an impossibility. For a rebel he was…nice. He was quick thinking, a trait she loved as she possessed it herself. And if he ended up a collaborator that wouldn't be so bad. She didn't particularly want to kill him, an odd thought. Maybe once he was plugged back in he would be someone else to talk to or hang around. Maybe some good things could come out of the real world.

Hello great plan in less than thirty-two seconds.

This was perfect, so long as Smith worked it out with the mainframe to let them back in. It would be in his best interests to have it work out. 

"I have chosen my favor."

"Really? What?"

"I'll tell you tomorrow."

"Ok." As they approached the phone it started to ring. "Bye Stef," he said with a smirk as he picked it up. She frowned half-heartedly as he pressed it to his ear and disappeared. Replacing the receiver to its hook she shifted away.

Dropping down into the spare chair of his office, she sat sideways and swung her legs over the opposite arm. "Well, did you talk to Clarke yet?"

"Yes."

"And?"

"We will plug a few of them back in. The others will remain in the real world and act as our spies, we will send the repair fleet and upgrade their ship – that's a simple thing to do."

"Is that fair? They came to us to escape the real world."

"We will keep them safe from the sentinels and give them numerous locations of safe locations at communication so that they make hack into the Matrix at any time they choose."

"That seems fair enough I suppose."

"It does, it is far more benevolence than they deserve. I only wish…"

"What Smith?"

"Do I even have to say it Stef?"

"Stevie. You wish Stevie were on the Exodus instead of the Nebuchadnezzar. You wish she was coming home."

"I wish she were anywhere but Anderson's ship."

"She won't be there forever."

"I know, she won't live forever," he said with a sigh. Swallowing, he went silent. Dropping her legs back down, she leant over and clasped his hands. 

"We will work something out. If we could save her once we can save her again. It will be all right."

"Things are rarely all right."

"You want to know something? I used to think that this place was just an epicenter of bad vibes. Every possible shitty thing that can happen to has happen to at least one person that is here or has been here."

"That's just superstitious."

"Sue me. But once you get past all that it's not so bad. Sometimes it's even pretty good."

"How does that help my daughter who is in the real world?"

"My point, that has become lost somewhere in all this rambling, is that it will turn out ok." Sooner than you think my friend, if my plan works. And my plans always work.

"Is thee some reason you're smiling?" he asked, trying to shake off his depressive mood.

"No reason in particular. Hey – when's your birthday?"

"I was never born Mimosa."

"You know what I mean."

"The date I came online?"

"Yeah – that," she said exhaustedly.

"The nineteenth of November. Next Tuesday, as a point of interest you may like to remember that that date is also Jones and Brown's birthday."

"You guys were brought online at the same time," he nodded. "I never really thought about that but that makes sense. What kind of cake you want?"

"I do not eat cake."

"Now we both know that's a lie. Tell me or I swear I'll require something horrible."

He sighed, but with a smile this time. "You aren't going to leave this alone are you?"

"Do I ever?"

"No, no you don't. Most of the time I let you win."

"Just tell me."

"Well, if you must know…"

"I must or I wouldn't have asked."

"Fruitcake," he saw her eyes shine. "Whatever joke you were going to make I would appreciate you not saying it out loud."

"Yes sir, my loopy commandant sir."  

"Since the subject of children was brought up – did you ever find that child's parents or whomever he was with?"

Stef involuntarily gulped, her voice was lost for a second. Part of her wanted to tell Smith that she was friends – or acquaintances – with the exiles but another part of her stopped her. Agents killed exiles. Two of the agents' key directives were: kill rebels and kill exiles. Exiles were just enemies. 

She couldn't betray them.

"Stef?"

"Sorry," she said shaking her head. "I was lost in thought for a second. Yeah, he they found him about five minutes after you left."

"Then what took you so long?"

"I wasn't lying to Brown – I ran into an exile."

"What has made you so interested in the exiles all of a sudden? You've never bothered with them before."

"I just found out about them a couple of weeks ago – I was studying my files like you suggested months ago."

"Doing your homework, very good."

The exiles were only one of two things that she had never been able to talk to him about. The other was Jonas, if she told him about _god_ then nothing would ever be the same again, she wasn't ready to do that yet.

"Just out of curiosity, how do you feel about the exiles?" Just so she knew where he stood. 

"They are just enemies, they hide within the Matrix, Brown calls them cowards."

"But…" 

"They're just enemies Stef. No different to the rebels."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Damn, Smith hates exiles. Going to be interesting in fics to come. 

*Jayne and Parker = Mary Jane and Peter Parker – I lover Spider-man. 


	4. Stevie Smith hates the real world

**Title: **Frames of Reference: Chapter Four

**Author: **Stormhawk

**Rating: **PG

**Notes: **For anyone who is still confused…

Ok class, time for a science lesson. Today's lesson: The physics of Stevie Smith

Stevie Smith hasn't been Stevie Smith her whole life. At least her whole real-world-body life. Her real world body originally belonged to someone else. When the children experiment came about the mainframe selected three teenagers basically at random – the only stipulation being that they shared some physical traits with their favors. It orchestrated their deaths and wiped their minds therefore creating empty bodies with which to do the experiment.

It reset their residual self-images to their baby selves but their real world bodies were still teenagers, just getting filled up with new memories. 

I think I have finally explained myself, anyone else who is still confused email me. 

**Word Count: **3272****

**Please Read and Review.**

Stevie was hungry, no matter how much she hated the goop that was the staple food aboard the ship…and in the real world in general, she had to eat something. And they were a couple of centuries late for a McDonalds.

Climbing off her pallet-bed, she stumbled through the narrow passageways toward the kitchen. The Nebuchadnezzar almost reminded her of a submarine that her school had visited; they were both ships. Except that this was a hovercraft. Opening the squeaky door to the kitchen she groaned when she saw that it wasn't empty and that the only other person in there was Anderson.

Begrudgingly, and only at Morpheus' insistence Anderson had faked being nice to her for a couple of days. When he and the rest of the crew realized that she had no interest in being friends or changing her opinions about the Matrix and her father they had stopped trying to be her friends and had basically ignored her.

The real world sucked. 

She missed her home; she missed her dad and her friends. She missed everything about her normal life. A frown was the only acknowledgement she received from Anderson – then again that was no different from usual. She was and never would be more than the daughter of an agent to him.

Yes, her father was an agent. A computer program but considering the world she had grown up in was a computer simulation that made him as real as anyone else. These facts had taken a little while to get used to but he had explained them in the same calm tone that he had always explained everything.

Her father may have been an agent but he was also a kind man, the person who had chased away her nightmares, bandaged her skinned knees, driven her to school when she missed the bus, waited up for her after her first school dance and…been there for her. 

He had been there a lot more than other fathers that she had known; some of her friends envied her for the fact that she could talk to him about anything, that he never yelled at her. He didn't drink or smoke and he was only rarely home late from work.

But he wasn't there anymore.

Pulling on the lever the slop plopped into the small tin bowl. "I hate this stuff," she muttered to herself. It looked like snot. That sentiment was probably the only thing she shared with the rebels. 

Some of the goop slopped over the side of the bowl and onto the counter. Shaking her head at it she grabbed a spoon and walked toward the door.

"Aren't you going to pick that up?" Anderson's voice was an icy hiss.

"You do it Anderson. I'm going back to my room and eat this…do you even call it food?"

"You dropped it Smith. You pick it up."

"Am I even a person to you? Or just some extension of my dad?"

"Your 'dad'," he spat. "Is nothing more than a murderous program. It is a heartless killer; he's a piece of code. You, you're just some freak."

"Shut up Anderson!"

"He's a monster." The next thing he knew was Stevie's plate of food hitting him right in the face. 

"Don't you ever say that again!" Stevie screamed at him.

You know that feeling when something bad is going to happen?

Stevie froze when he saw the look in his cold eyes. Murder. He was through putting up with her. His face twisted in rage as he wiped the goop off with the back of his sleeve. Then he ran toward her. Jumping through the door and running quickly down the thin corridors toward her room Stevie barreled right into Yami.

"Hey, watch it!" the older girl said as Stevie pushed herself to her feet and ran down the next section of corridor. Anderson jumped over Yami without stopping to help her up. "Neo, what is going on?" she yelled in frustration. It really pissed her off when she didn't know what was going on.

Stevie reached her room and slammed the blot through the lock just as he reached it. "Get out here Smith!"

"What – so you can kill me?"

"That would be the general idea, yes."

"In your friggin' dreams Anderson."

"My name is Neo."

"And mine is Stevie. You never even gave me a chance to be me, all you can see is my dad."

"Neo…what's going on?" Morpheus asked, appearing behind him – attracted by all the screaming.

"Her. What else would it be?"  
  


"I think you're scaring a teenage girl."

"Morpheus I think they must have done something to you when they captured you. That's the daughter of an agent in there – you saved it, brought it into the real world and you never even told me why."

Morpheus led him a few feet away from the door and whispered to the younger man. "What if we can turn her to our side?"

"We tried, she's not interested."

"So you think killing her is the only choice we have left?"

"It seems like a good idea."

"I don't think so."

"I think it's time for a vote Captain. You know how I feel, you know how Trinity feels…she's bad enough around the recruits."

"Trinity has her reasons for that."

"I know Morpheus, I know. I want her off the ship, just dump her or send her to Zion or something."

"Don't you think you're being unreasonable?"

"No. Not at all."

*****

"When are those humans going to get here?" Smith asked impatiently as they hung around the lobby of the Agency. 

"Maybe they did run out of juice."

"Speaking of their failing ship – would you like to accompany the repair fleet?"

"Excuse me?"

"The fleet that is going to be repairing the ship. I'm sure they would feel much better if they had someone they trusted there along with a crew of machines, just so they don't destroy each other."

"How can I go with them? They're in the real world."

"Your program would be uploaded machine out there."

"So instead of a rebel hacking in I would be hacking out?"

"Yes."

"The real world sucks."

"Putting your glitch aside it would an interesting experience. Also it will help to calm them down."

"They aren't my buddies or anything, we just made a deal."

"It is your choice."

"Ok – what the hell, I'll go."

"Finally," he commented as Ryder walked in and through the metal detectors without incident.

"We don't have much time," the human captain explained. "We are running on reserve juice at the moment."

"Then allow me to be simple. We will plug four of your crew back into the Matrix, repair your ship in return for your services in the real world."

"What services?" Ryder asked suspiciously, he had known it wouldn't be as simple as they had first thought.

"Any information or strategic plans that you come across you are to inform us of. We will provide you with locations of communications points and identify you with the sentinels to avoid any unfortunate incidents."

"That seems reasonable enough. Only one thing, can you provide us with what passes for food out there?"

"We have designed something better. The food will be the same, the manner in which you ingest it will not be."

"Meaning what exactly?"

"May I Smith?" Stef interjected, knowing that the techno babble explanation that he had given her would only confuse the human she would simplify it him. He nodded.

"You plug in with a tube in your mouth, eat in the Matrix and when you get back out you will still be full."

"That seems too good to be true. What about our operator – he's Zion-born, he can't plug in to eat."

Smith was on the verge of scowling, these humans wanted everything. "Since he was born outside of the Matrix it is infeasible to even attempt to plug him in. There is nothing we can do for him."

"If that's the way it has to be."

"Do we have a deal?"

"Yes," Ryder agreed, he'd talk to Galli but besides that everything was better than they could have hoped for. Holding out his hand as he would to any human he was making a deal with Smith looked down at it in distaste. As the human was about to withdraw it Stef elbowed it, begrudgingly shaking it the captain managed a smile.

"We will send the repair fleet now, could you have your location?" Ryder gave them the coordinates then left.

*****

The upload was a simple process, in fact it was the same process used by the humans to enter and exit the Matrix. It would take the fleet about an hour to reach the Exodus so that gave her time to download the information on how to control the machine, a two meter tall bipedal, vaguely humanoid creature, it had a glowing red orb in place of a head but the normal amount of appendages. Once they had received word that the fleet had arrived, Stef rang the ship and got them to plug her robot in.

Then their operator called the exit phone. Picking up the phone she disappeared from the Matrix. This was nothing like the glitch, it was a lot less painful for a start and it wasn't a pod of red-pink goop that she woke up in, it was a nice clean ship. 

"Agent Mimosa?" the captain asked as he unplugged the robot. Standing to its full height, Stef took a couple of experimental steps and found it was really easy to control.

"Yes, it's me."

"Good – that means this deal is on the level doesn't it?"

"Yes, did you doubt that? Humans beings betray each other, not us."

"That may be proven by history but machines haven't exactly been our best friends over the years."

"The repair crew will do its job, there's no need to watch them, I have something that I wish to discuss with you."

"You have done us a great favor, we can listen to you."

"I'd rather talk in my own body, rather than this avatar if you don't mind."

"We have a construct – will that do?"

"It will suffice."

Galli plugged her robot back in and then plugged Ryder, Pandora and Darth in. The construct, as it was everywhere, was pure white except for the four chairs. "Let's talk," Darth said.

"You owe me a favor, I didn't pull the trigger on the Smurf so you owe me."

"What can we do for you?" the captain asked politely, what could an agent possibly want that they could give them?

"There is a girl out here, on the Nebuchadnezzar to be precise. She is very important and I want her plugged back in."

"So you want one of us to give up our spot?"

"This is a temporary situation, I can see what I can do about the rest of you – that includes your operator."

"Who is she?"

"Her name is Stevie Smith. She is Agent Smith's daughter."

"How the hell is that possible?" Pandora burst out. "Sorry, but I had to ask."

"Not in the traditional way if you are thinking that. She was part of an experiment; he didn't want her to die so she was brought out here. Dragged out kicking and screaming but alive." 

"If she's on the Neb, we don't have a chance."

"If you don't try, the deal is off," Stef bluffed, this was the first and possibly only chance they would ever have of getting Stevie back.

"This was never part of the arrangement."

"It's the decent thing to do. She doesn't belong out here." The collaborators looked at each other, unsure of what to do.

"Why would programs care about the decent thing to do?" Pandora asked, of the three she was the most suspicious.

"Programs are people too," she said quoting Hummer's graffiti tag.

"That's true," the programmer said. 

"Well I'm glad the dark lord of Sith thinks so. What about the rest of you?" 

"Your crew gets this ship fixed and we'll do it."

"These machines will do their jobs."

"Well good cause they're freaking…scaring…"

"I know what freaking means captain."

"Freaking out the younger members of my crew. I'm afraid that Cray will get scared and get Galli to trip the EMP."

"They're not going to do that are they?"

"No. I ordered them not to, I don't want anything unfortunate happening. I seriously doubt that it would work anyway, this ship is reliable – it works when we ask nicely and sometimes when we hit it."

"Give the crew a couple of days and it will be better than new. It will be running as sweet as a sentinel." 

"This deal seems too good to be true. There isn't some other shoe waiting to drop is there?"

"No unless you plan on betraying us. If you did that you would see how bad of an enemy we could be. But let's not think about that. Beta crew is finished on the power grid and wants to work on the COM system. It has to cut the power to the construct."

"Galli, get us out." Ryder said. The captain and his girlfriend disappeared first.

Darth looked up at the ceiling. "Give me a minute."

"I'm assuming you want something," Stef said as Darth stretched his arms high over his head and yawned.

"I'm just trying to figure out an enigma. You aren't like the other agents, you understand our…human terminology. You talk like a normal person."

"And how many agents do you know?"

"That's part of my point, you are the only one who we know of that has been willing to talk to us instead of just shooting."

"And you want to know why."

"I can't figure it out. Your code doesn't read like anything I've ever seen. It's not pure agent and it's not human."

"My code reads exactly like every other agent."

"Until you look closer."

She wasn't ready to tell him the truth, not yet anyway. What right did he have to know anyway? She had only…well Jones had told him but Greer had only found out a couple of weeks ago and he was the best recruit they had and he was a good guy. Plus it was fun to tease Darth, or at least it could be. 

"I am different from them and I am different to you."

He smiled his smile "That answer will do for the moment."

***

"Is it just me…?" Galli asked as they watched the screen and waited to pull them out of the construct, "…or is Darth hitting on an agent?"

"Oh yeah." Cray agreed with a nod.

***

"What's your boss's first name?"

Smith? That would have to be 'agent' but she knew that wasn't what he was talking about. "He doesn't have one."

"And you do."

"If we don't get out, Beta crew is going to cut the power and we'll both die."

"Get us out Galli!" he said in a fake frenzy. 

*****

"You have to come out sometime," Yami reasoned from the other side of Stevie's door.

"Just go away," the younger girl said from within her small cabin.

"If you come out…I'll…"

"Blackmail won't work. You have nothing that I want."

"I'll get Tank to plug you into the agent training program. It's got your dad – I think – and a really cute blond guy in tight leather pants."

"That program is designed to make people afraid of him. It's nothing but a lie. You want to know who was the first person to point a gun at me and threaten to pull the trigger?"

_Like I would have an idea_, Yami thought silently shaking her head. "Who?"

"Anderson."

There she goes again. "Why do you keep calling him that?"

"It's his real name, not his hacker alias. Thomas A Anderson."

Yami snorted, "That's a dork's name."

"Hence the reason I went with 'Neo'," Anderson said as he walked up with Morpheus.

"She's not comin' out Neo."

The rebel ran his hand through his short dark hair, "I don't care – we have to go into the Matrix."

"To see Auntie O again?"

"No, we don't have time to see the Oracle again," Morpheus, replied in his accustomed calm tone. 

"Then why?"

"To do what we do, free minds."

"Well, ok."

"You two go ahead, I'll catch up," Morpheus said. He waited until the younger rebels had left the corridor before talking. Leaning against the door, he was going to attempt and bring some peace to his ship. "Stevie?"

"Go away Morpheus."

"You have to come out. You can't stay in there forever."

"I can try."

"We all want to try and be your friend. We want you on our side but so far you haven't exactly given us a reason to see you as anything but your father's daughter."

"And who was your father Morpheus? What did he do?" The old rebel scratched his bald head and sighed.

"He worked in construction. He was very quiet; read a lot of books quite the opposite of his peers who were quite uneducated. There was an accident at the site one day, he just didn't come home. He died when I was younger than you."

"Great story Morpheus. Did you care what other people thought about him?"

"No."

"Then why should I?"

"It's different in your case Stevie. You have to see that it's different."

"Come on Morpheus," Anderson called from the deck above. Knowing that he had failed Morpheus sadly shook his head and left.

In that second Stevie made a decision. One that she surely would regret but seemed to be the only choice. 

She was going to leave the Nebuchadnezzar.

Waiting until all the noise from above stopped, she rolled her blanket up into a bundle and pulled on what passed for a jumper – it was in reality just a long sleeved shirt – and crept toward the kitchen. Filling one bottle with water and the other with goop she walked through the ship toward the ramp. Pushing the release button the ramp lowered until it touched the ground of the real world. 

Stevie strode down the ramp with more confidence than she actually had. It was going to be a one-way trip but she couldn't live among them anymore. Shaking off any thoughts of turning back, she walked off.

Later, after they had set up the meeting with the potential; a standard procedure but one they wanted Yami to observe they left the Matrix. Morpheus and Yami walked down toward Stevie's room.

"Looks like she finally decided to come out."

"Must have been really hungry to come out for that goop."

"Maybe she's finally coming around."

"Want to make a bet on that?" Yami asked before stopping realizing she had nothing to bet with.

"I don't bet. I never have."

"How boring."

"No. It's sensible."

After a quick search of the ship they realized that she wasn't on it, this was confirmed when they saw the ramp down. "Crap." Yami exclaimed.

"No, she wouldn't have…"

"After that shit with Neo this morning, why not?" Bolting up to the main deck, they did a quick thermal scan of the surrounding area, looking for a human's heat signature. They found nothing.

"She's long gone Morpheus," Tank announced.

"Good," Anderson said curtly.

"Well, she won't be coming back," Trinity said – _was that relief in her voice_? Yami wondered. "Exposure, starvation, dehydration, a fall or a machine – she doesn't have a chance."

Anderson grinned, "That will piss the agent off."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I don't have any footnotes *sigh*


	5. Lost and found

**Title: **Frames of Reference: Chapter Five

**Author: **Stormhawk

**Rating: **PG

**Notes: **Not this time.****

**Word Count: **4764****

**Please Read and Review.**

The same potential that they had set the meeting up with was now nothing more than a body on the ground. And shot, by accident of course, by Rom. He had been aiming for Smith but the agent had shifted out of the way in time. Anderson barked at his friends to get out of there.

Smith would have called for back up, his fellow agents or a few recruits but he was, frankly, bored out of his digitized skull so he decided to take on the 'one' by himself.

Every single time he fought Anderson they reached a certain point in the fight where he knew the rebel was going to fly away. It was at this point when he spoke. "Tell my daughter I love her."

"Sorry agent, can't tell her anything anymore. She's gone." Smith stopped fighting, the rebel couldn't mean…no, he couldn't mean that.

"You mean she's in Zion."

"No, she ran and she's not coming back. She's gone."

"You're lying," Anderson shook his head, laughed and flew away.

No, he wouldn't live without Stevie. He couldn't live without her. He refused to go on without his daughter.

And there was only one way for agents to kill themselves.

*****

Returning after working out the final details of the plan with the collaborators; they had drawn straws to see who was going back into the Matrix – the first three had been Darth, Cray and Pandora. Pandora refused to go back in without Ryder so she gave her straw to Niq so the brother and sister wouldn't be separated. There was one place left but Phoenix wanted to stay out for a while, just in case the engines didn't work so there was a spare pod.

Was she glad that Darth was getting plugged back in? No…maybe…he just confused her, but maybe it wouldn't be so bad having him in the Matrix. _Stop thinking about him_, she had to order herself.

Knocking on Smith's door to tell him that everything was sorted out she heard two words she had never expected to hear him say – at least seriously – "go away."

She frowned, ok something was definitely wrong.

Finding the door locked she took a step back and kicked it open. The lights were out, strange as the office was usually well lit. Flicking the light switch on she looked around the office.

At first she couldn't see him, then she took a few steps in and peered over the desk. He was leaning against the far side of his desk. His earpiece had been flung clear across the room with his sunglasses; his suit jacket was sitting beside him with his tie and his gun.

He was shaking with sobs and his face was wet with tears.

Faintly electronic green tears.

His skin had Matrix code flowing under it. He was trying to overload himself.

"Smith what happened?"

He turned his head to look at her. His eyes had code flowing behind them, but instead of the natural green that Jones had adopted this looked far from normal. "She's dead, Anderson told me. She's dead."

"No."

Kneeling beside him and holding him tightly she could feel him shaking. "I'm sorry."  

"I just want to die. Please let me die." It was the last thing he said as he started to spasm. He shook so violently that she had to let him go, the overload was imminent. 

Standing up she looked down helplessly. "I don't know what to do. I'm not going to lose you, I need you."

His skin was starting to get greener as more code was absorbed into him. "Jones," she said out loud. "Get Jones." She pressed two fingers to her earpiece. "Jones, get to Smith's office, hurry."

The tech agent shifted in a couple of seconds later. "Mimosa…" he stopped as he saw what she was looking at. A second or two later Smith stopped moving altogether. 

Stef panicked, she hadn't remembered that, she had been conscious when her access had been cut. "He's not dead is he?"

"No, the access was just cut. A few more moments…he was much closer to the overload than you or I." All she could do was nod. "His code will need to be purged." Nodding again, she shifted away, she knew Jones would handle it – this was his thing.

Quickly shifting to her apartment she ripped out her earpiece and broke down crying. Stevie was dead, how could she be dead? She was supposed to be safe in the real world. At least, as safe as she could possibly living among rebels.

This can't be happening.

*****

Sitting behind his desk at home in the real, real world Jones laughed at them then quietly chanted. "I know something you don't know."

"Arthur?" a soft feminine voice enquired. Turning away from the screen he looked up at the beautiful woman in the doorway.

"Yeah?"

"When I told you that you could bring a linked computer home I didn't think that you'd be up all night with it instead of me."

"Sorry baby, something interesting just happened."

"Well," the blond said as she sauntered over to him and sat on his lap, "something interesting could happen out here as well if you just leave the computer alone."

"Five more minutes."

Leaning in close, she pulled his round glasses off with her teeth, "please?" she asked as she let them drop to the floor.

"All right Carol, I'm coming."

*****

As the last of the repair crew left three days after they had started their job Ryder was finally able to breathe a small sigh of relief, not that he had been that worried in the first place. The only one that was left was the 'avatar' robot that was stowed in the corner in case Mimosa had to come back out for whatever reason.

Strange, how in less than a week the machines had gone from enemy to ally. And in these few days they had done more for them than the resistance ever had.

It was a strange world. Strange worlds. 

"Hey Galli what you say to letting this bucket of bolts rip? Take her out on the spin of her life?"

"I'd say…let's burn hover-plating." 

"Yeah," Cray cried enthusiastically. "Let's see what this crate can do."

The operator/pilot punched up the ship to full power and for the first time in years the engines hummed instead of spluttering. "Captain?" Galli invited, Ryder smiled and punched what would be classed as the 'go' button. The ship took off down the tunnels.

Everyone onboard was celebrating; the only person who was in any kind of misery was Phoenix. She was in her room muttering about how the machines had repaired or in some cases even rebuilt the systems that she had worked on for years. 

After flying at full speed for a couple of hours Niq looked over to her brother who was piloting the ship since in a few days he'd never be able to do it again. "Hey Cray come over here."

Handing the controls back to Galli he walked over to his blond sister, "yeah sis?"

"What do you think this is?" she said pointing to a blip on the scanner. "I've never seen anything like this before."

"Like what?" Darth said as he climbed up the ladder.

"Darth is this thing malfunctioning? I think this is a glitch."

"Can't be, this system is perfect."

"Nothing on this ship is perfect." Niq retorted. "Never has been, never will be."

"Really? What about my hair?" he said shaking his hair.

"Except for that Darth," Niq said – rolling her eyes.

"Give me a look," he said as he leant over and peered into the scanner. "Holy shit," he muttered under his breath. "Get Ryder up here now."

Cray hit the PA and called the captain up. "What is it Cray?" Ryder asked as he walked on to the bridge.

"No idea sir – Darth told me to call you up."

"Darth?"

"Cap, you know what this means?" he said pointing to the screen.

"Cray get out of that seat, Galli get us there now."

"What is it?"

"There's someone out there."

"Out there?" Phoenix shrieked, "That's impossible."

"This is my system Phee, the only one on the ship that never failed us and with the help of those fix-it bots there is no way in hell that this is an error." 

"Those fix-it sentinel could have crossed some wires or something, this is a human ship not one of theirs." 

"Then why is everything else working perfectly?" Pandora asked the hotheaded engineer.

About twenty minutes later they were at the location of the strange blip. Pandora pointed out the window, "Over there – land Galli, land us."

As soon as they landed they lowered the ramp and Ryder ran out, Pandora and Galli followed close behind with flashlights. 

"Oh my god," Pandora uttered.

"There isn't a god," Ryder said gently as he picked up the limp but living body. The dusky haired teenage girl had a large cut above her right eyebrow and a fine pattern of bruises from the fall she had had. Ryder carried Stevie back aboard the Exodus. 

Stevie had run blindly from the Nebuchadnezzar, she didn't know where she was going. Then again, no humans had ever been so far on their own on foot in the real world before. She was done for, she had known that the minute she had stepped off the ramp. There was no way for a human to survive on his or her own in the real world.

Living on a ship was hard enough.

She just couldn't take it anymore, she was sick of and tired of Anderson and Morpheus and all of their bull, she was sick of everything.

She wasn't sure that her dad would have approved such a rash course of action but she couldn't exactly go and ask him could she? No, and that was the whole point.

Hearing a mechanistic sound, probably a sentinel, about six hours of stumbling around she ran away from that sound, not ready to die just yet. But then she had fallen and blacked out.

"She's hurt pretty bad Ry," Pandora said as she bandaged the teenager. 

"What I want to know is what she was doing out here by herself in the first place," Galli said, asking the obvious question.

"She's probably as sick of this war as we are."

"There are no ships in the area, scans say for at least thirty-six hours. Who knows how long she's been lying there." Darth said shaking his head.

"If she hadn't been found soon she wouldn't have made it," Pandora said with a sigh, "I'm just thankful that they upgraded our medical bay as well."

"Speaking of our new found friends, doesn't someone need to go in and organize the plug-in?" Niq asked, having just remembered it. "They may get pissed if we're late."

*****

Stef sat beside the unconscious Smith as the terabytes of useless information was flushed from his code. She held his hand and spoke to him softly even though she knew he couldn't hear her. He had only been conscious for a few moments when the flushing had started – Jones had been there, she'd been back at her apartment crying her eyes out about the human girl – and the tech agent had said Smith mumbled something about not being able to breathe.

"I'm sorry about Stevie. I promise if it's the last thing we do it will be to kill Anderson. I'm sorry you lost your daughter."

"Mimosa," a voice said from behind her. Spinning on her chair she saw Jones.

Oh shit. "You just heard every word I just said didn't you?"

"Yes."

"And?" _Choose exile_ she reminded herself. _Just choose exile and you won't die._

"I'm interested to know why the loss of his experiment child would have such a profound effect after all this time."

"Well," _think, brain, think. Jones one plus one does not equal two. Do not be the intelligent agent I know you are. Please don't work it out._

"Or was her death more recent?" he asked perfectly evenly, no hint of anything in his voice.

_Think!_

"I'm waiting for an answer."

"Yes, her death was more recent. Remember how Brown's son killed her?" He nodded. "It didn't work…it…I don't know how to explain it, you're the tech. It skipped her code, program, whatever the hell she was into a different body. It overrode what was there and she continued to live."

"Fascinating, continue."

"It wasn't until a couple of months later that we found out what had happened. The rebels were furious of course but they let her live. She died just before this happened," she said with a long look at Smith. "He was quite fond of her."

_Choose exile Stef, just choose exile._

"I assume you do not wish anyone else to know about this."

"Given that this is the kind of thing that warrants deletion, of course not. But now you know."

"I will make you a deal. Do not tell anyone about the game I designed and I will keep this secret."

"But it's only a game – and a cool one at that."

"Do we have a deal?"

"Of course."

"I did come down here for another reason. One of the collaborators has entered the Matrix. I assume they wish to discuss some detail of the arrangement."

"Fine, I'll shift over. Thank you Jones," she said sincerely before shifting from the room.

Morphing into a body near the entrance they had used she completed the shift. It was a rooftop restaurant, but since it was early in the morning there were no customers. Idling near the phone booth was Darth. Dressed in navy cargo pants and a loose black shirt he was staring at the stars – deep in thought about something. 

"You want something," it wasn't a question; he wouldn't be here unless he wanted something.

"Yeah, millions of dollars and a mansion."

"Which you are getting," that snapped him out of his thoughts. He walked up and stared down at her, not that he was very intimidating, he was only two or three inches taller than her.

"You're kidding me."

"Someone dear to me in dead, another is in what passes for the hospital. I'm not in a joking mood. Mansions and money are easy to do; we already have a house picked out for you as well as a bottomless bank account, just don't be ridiculous and spend hundreds of thousands each day. What do you want?"

"I'm sorry about your friend."

"It was the kid I wanted you to bring back here, just to let her come home. Anderson told Smith she's dead."

Darth was confused. "Who?"

"Neo. Friggin' Neo. Anderson is his birth name, Thomas A Anderson." Darth nodded in understanding.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better we don't like him or that crew," he hoped it would make her feel better; he hated the haunted look in her eyes behind her glasses. 

He opened his mouth to speak again when he was interrupted, "we don't care about the opinions of traitors," a familiar but hated voice said from above them. The looked up to see Anderson in the sky above them. Faster than Darth could blink Stef whipped out her gun and fired off the entire clip. The bullets never touched him; he just held down his hand and stopped them.

Darth had to swing his arm up over his head to avoid the hail of dead bullets hitting him as Anderson let them fall. 

Jumping up and launching herself off the roof she flew at him. She had nowhere near as good as control of her flight as he did but she was good enough. Flying on grief and rage her attacks were strong but the emotion-filled blows were sometimes less than accurate. 

"Traitors always stick together. I should have known I hadn't seen the last of that misfit crew."

"I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you!" she raged.

"I don't think so," he said as he flipped one hundred and eighty degrees and kicked her down with such force that she cracked the rooftop and left her stunned for a couple of seconds. "Now you," he said looking at Darth.

"Wanna live?" she asked him as she pulled herself to her feet. 

"Duh," was his simple answer as he stared up at the black-wearing ex-ally in the sky above them. 

"Then jump right now."

"Jump?" he squeaked.

"Off the roof, right now," she ordered as Anderson flew down toward them. She required two guns and aimed them right up at him. Firing repeatedly she looked back at Darth. "Go!"

"I think I trust you. I hope I can," he said as he jumped. Emptying the last bullet from each gun she shifted to the ground and looked up to see the tumbling rebel. Dropping all the gravity out from under him he fell faster than Anderson could fly. Restoring the gravity about three feet from the ground he came to a sudden halt. He dropped the final three feet and landed in a crouch as she pulled her key from thin air. 

Jamming the key into the lock of the service entrance to the building she pulled the programmer in and slammed the door shut as Anderson approached but by the time he kicked the door open they were gone, lost in the endless hall.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Darth said as he held his stomach and leant against the wall. "How the hell did you do that?"

"It's just a trick. Something I've learned."

"Thank you."

"Welcome, Anderson is just a fuckwit. I wish I could kill him."

"Where are we? Where are we going?"

"The backdoors and as far as anyone else is concerned, you don't know they exist. You cannot tell anyone that you came in here. Promise?"

"Promise. These are real backdoors? Do you have any idea how cool this is? I'm a programmer – I have written these but to see them here in front of me, physical – it's amazing." He reached out and touched the doorframe, he reminded her of a kid in a candy store. 

"To answer your second question, we're just going to leave through a friend of mines so you can get to an exit."

"I never even told you why I'm in here in the first place."

"Forgot about that. Why are you here Lord Vader?" 

"First, please tell me what you are. You have too, I hate mysteries." 

"You're the programmer."

"You want me to guess?"

"You can try."

"Ok," he said as he leant against the impeccably white wall. "Your code is too organized to be a human and too erratic for an agent. My second guess would be an agent who was living among us to learn our ways."

"Nope. Hang on, if that was your second guess what was your first?"

"That you were, until some point in your existence, human."

She stopped and stared at him, "how in hell did you guess that?"

"So I am right?"

"Yes. Congratulations," he smirked and did a small victory dance. "So, why are you in here?"

"We have another member of our crew."

"Someone have a baby but no one seemed pregnant."

"No, we found some girl. I don't know what in hell she was doing out by herself but that's how we found her. Injured and unconscious but alive."

"It will be interesting to see what she thinks of your side of the war."

"Somehow I think she's on our side. The only reason I can see – besides her ship being destroyed – is that she ran away."

"Zion-born or unplugged?"

"Unplugged, no more than a year judging by the length of her hair unless she cut it. Nice dusty brown too." Stef almost smiled, Stevie had had dusty-brown hair. "Blue eyes. Ice blue, I saw them when Pandora checked her pupils."

"That girl sounds like Stevie."

"Could it be?" 

"She's dead. Anderson said she was gone. I watched Smith's memory of it."

"Gone is different to dead."

"I've given up giving in miracles but…come on," she called as she sprinted down the hall. Stopping and knocking on Hummer's door she had to wait for Darth to catch up.

"Come in dude or dudette, the door is open." Opening the door he looked up from the couch. "Hey kitty. Forgive me for not opening the door Agent Mim – that was un-gnarly of me."

"Forgiven dude – can we use your phone?"

"Just not long distance, the bill came in yesterday."

"Call your ship already," she commanded impatiently. 

"Is this even an exit?" he said as he reached for his cell.

A few requirements later she looked back at him. "Now it is, hurry." After Galli dialed it in, she grabbed his arm as he went to press it to his ear. "Plug in that robot ok?"

"Ok," he agreed as he pressed it to his ear and disappeared. Replacing the handset she waited for it to ring again. 

"Kitty, what's going on?" Hummer asked as he ran his hand through his beach-blond hair. "You look really worried."

"I'll tell you later, promise. Where's Nat?" 

"Out with Charlie."

"Is Charlie at work?" the surfer-hippy nodded.

Ok – that was strange even for Hummer. "I would never let my kid spend the day with the grim reaper."

"One, he's not mine – I'm just watching him and Two; you've met Charlie, it's not like he's morbid or anything, he's a good guy."

"I know…bye Hummer," she said as the phone rang and she picked it up. 

"Bye Mim," he said as he walked over to the phone and put the receiver back on the cradle before settling back down on the lounge to watch the cartoon version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Waking up in the real world, she immediately activated all the system on the avatar robot. She didn't even have to say anything, Darth had explained everything. Except the fact that she had been human, that was his secret for the moment. "She's this way Mimosa," Ryder said as he led her down toward the medical bay.

_Please let it be her_, was Stef's only thought as her metal feet clicked on the deck plating.

She can't be dead. Please let it be her, shutting off her visual sensors for a second – the same effect as blinking, she stepped through the door, hoping for the best but unsure if she was prepared if it wasn't.

Thank you.

"Stevie," she whispered as she walked over to the human girl. Suitably shocked by the state she was in she was so glad that she wasn't dead. 

"Is it her?" Darth asked. Stef nodded the avatar's head. 

"I can try and wake her if you want," Pandora offered. "She's had a good sleep."

"All right," Stef said and stood back as the older woman administered a syringe to Stevie, a few seconds later the young girl began to rise. Unable to help herself, Stef leaned in closer; it had been ages since she had seen her. In reality at least. Collapsed histories concocted by Jonas couldn't count, as she was the only one who ever remembered them. 

As the last thing she remembered was walking around the trashy tunnels of the real world it was quite understandable that Stevie screamed at the sight of a machine. "Please don't kill me!" 

Stef held up her robotic hands, "it's just me kid. I would never kill you."

Stevie stopped dead at the sound of a familiar voice. "Stef?"

"Hey – who else?"

"Where am I?" She said, finally looking around at surroundings. "This isn't the Neb."

"Doi. You think Anderson would let me on his ship?"

"Then where?"

Ryder stepped forward, "this is my ship Stevie. You're on the Exodus."

"Exorcist?"

"Ex-o-dus," he corrected but laughed at the joke.

"If I'm on a ship…Stef what the hell are you doing here?"

"Taking a holiday. These guys are on our side."

"Thank god."

"I will next time I see him but I seriously doubt that he had anything to do with it," that muttered statement earned a 'what?' look from everyone. "Never mind."

"How's my dad?"

"Not good Stevie. Anderson told him you were dead. He took it really hard."

"Is he ok?"

"He's in recovery. A couple of weeks and he'll be as good as new."

"I miss him, can you tell him that for me?"

"Tell him yourself – you're going back in."

"No way."

"Yes way."

Stevie smiled. "Cool."

"I have to get back. Go back to where the repair fleet left you and a ship will be by tomorrow to pick up the four going back in. They won't talk much but they will give you clear instructions. In a couple of days you'll wake up in the Matrix, fully reconnected."

Once she was back in the Matrix, she realized a fatal flaw in her plan. Stevie's file. Surely the mainframe would recognize her as soon as she was put back in. "Damn it," she said out loud, dropping her head down onto her desk. Why hadn't she thought of that?

A knock on the door only further irritated her. "Come in," she said as she raised her head off the desk to see Jones walk in.

"What can I do for you Jones?"

"The files for the rebels being reconnected. You'll need to give them to me so that I can edit and reactivate them."

"Now?" Shit, she didn't have any time. Could she tell him the truth? No, Smith would kill her.

"That would be preferable." 

She had no idea what to do. A first for her.

_Jonas, _she thought as loudly as she could, _I need a favor._

"Mimosa?"

_Jonas please answer me. _

She breathed a sigh of relief when the tech agent froze and a word in green font appeared on her computer. [What?]

[I need a favor. I need a file for Stevie. You can do it faster than me.]

[And exactly why should I do that for you?]

[Because you can.]

[I don't think so.]

[With all that shit you just gave me? Come on and play fair.]

[It's my world remember?]

[Come on.]

[Fine, give me ten minutes.] The typed conversation disappeared from the screen and the world of the Matrix restarted. Jones was still waiting for the files.

"Jones can I ask you a question?" She had had this conversation with him once before but he wouldn't remember it because it had been in the erased timeline.

"Yes."

"Was Whitman an addict?"

"Are you asking this because of Smith? Because you should know of the thousands of agents only a few percent ever even use the access as a tool."

"No, I've been meaning to ask it for a long time."

"It will take a minute to explain."

I would rather it took ten minutes. "I have a minute."

Ten minutes later, as promised – though she wasn't sure how much time in the real, real world had passed as Jonas controlled the flow of time in the Matrix and the real world – the files appeared. She hadn't really expected him to deliver as he said he would, but he had – it left her happy but slightly suspicious.

***

"Why did you do that?" Carol asked Jonas as she entered the room. Jonas had perfected and taken great leaps in the technology that allowed his Matrix characters to exist in the real world. Combining Tim Annerly's disks and conventional hologram technology he had been able to make Carol exactly like a human, though at her center she was still a program.

And an insane one at that.

"Because I could Carol. It helps to keep their worlds interesting. It was only a little favor."

"But it was for her," Carol said spitefully. She knew the connection between Stef, Sula and Serica and he had told her about Phelan, Serica's brother. Phelan blamed himself for Serica's death because he hadn't been there when she had broken up with Jonas, even though he had promised to be in case it turned ugly. He hadn't been there and she had died.

"Don't go there Carol, I would have done the same for the rebels. I've done much more for you."

"But I thank you," she said with smile. "Sometimes several times."

"In ways that no one else can."

"That's why you love me."

"Indeed."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Don't worry; I'm not making Jonas into a nice guy. 


	6. Reunion and things unsaid

**Title: **Frames of Reference: Chapter Six

**Author: **Stormhawk

**Rating: **PG

**Word Count: **2896****

**Please Read and Review.**

Stef sat by Smith's slab/bed in the tech lab two days later as the major portion of the purging finished. She hoped he would wake up soon. The reattached collaborators – and his daughter – had woken up a few hours ago and were exploring their mansion.

It was a fun idea, giving them a mansion. Money was no object to the agents so it hadn't seemed to such a big of a deal.

She literally heard him blink as he opened his eyes for the first time in almost a week. "Welcome back," she said with a smile.

"What are you smiling at?" he snapped as he sat up and looked down at himself. He was in hospital-type pajamas, either a coincidence because the lab was the equivalent of hospital for agents or some sort of strange joke it was of the only human customs that the agents had adopted.

"Well, something good happened…"

"Unless it involves Anderson's head on a platter I don't want to hear it Mimosa." He said as he folded his arms across his chest and lowered his head.

"Do you want to give me a chance to tell you?"

"I just wanted to die. Couldn't you have let me die?"

"No. I can't just let you die, I need you. Stevie needs you too." His head snapped toward her in anger.

"My daughter is dead."

"No, she's alive." With one quick movement he hit her in the side of the head. Standing and looking down at her as she pulled herself back up to her feet he fumed.

"Don't you ever say that. How could you joke about that? I never wanted to believe that you were as bad as Whitman. That joke makes me think you're worse."

Ok, that hurt. She would let it pass on the grounds that he still thought Stevie was dead and that he was in the hospital. "I'm not joking, I'm serious. She's not dead."

"Please don't lie to me. I know the truth."

"When have I ever lied to you?"

"You would lie to me about this because you're human. Humans have this incessant need for hope against all odds and against the truth." He said bitterly as he sat back down on his bed.

Turning her chair back up the right way she sat down in front of him. "Anderson told you. Who are you going to believe – your worst enemy or your best friend?"

He hadn't thought of it like that. Looking straight into her eyes he needed more than anything not to see any deception there. He needed to see the truth. "Are you telling me the truth or are you just holding out hope?"

"Put some real clothes on and come with me."

"I'm still purging, I can't require any." One requirement later he was back in his suit. Reaching over and straightening his tie she slipped his sunglasses into his pocket. 

"Jones won't mind if you slip out for a couple of minutes would he?"

"I won't tell him unless this proves to be a waste of time."

"Have a little faith in me please," she said as she shifted them away. Standing in the front entrance of the mansion they walked through into the living room. Darth was lying on the couch with is feet propped up on the coffee table watching the big screen TV. 

"Darth?" he looked up and paused the TV.

"Yeah?"

"Where's everyone else?"

"Up in their rooms. The girls changed rooms, Niq's on the left now. Cray's still in the middle room."

"And you're still in the attic?"

"No one else claimed it, it's cool up there anyway."

Nodding, she had to practically drag Smith up the stairs. Walking to the right on the second level he stopped and shook his arm free. "Is there some point to being here?"

"Open that door Smith," she said pointing to the bedroom door at the end of the hall. 

"What for?"

"Just open the damn door Smith." 

"What's the point?" 

"Dad?" a soft voice asked as the door opened and Stevie walked out, having heard their voices.

"Stevie?" he breathed, unable to believe his eyes.

"Dad!" the teenager cried as she ran toward him. Catching her he hugged her tightly.

"I thought I lost you."

"Anderson is a big fat lying jerk."

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm plugged back in, I'm home."

"I love you."

"I love you too dad, come see my new room," she said as she pulled him into her new room. It was much bigger than her old room and with some posters and personal effects it would be perfect. 

He turned back to look at Stef. She smiled and nodded, he returned the smile and went to see Stevie's new room. His daughter was home – everything was perfect. 

Stef grinned to herself as she walked down the stairs. Everything was going to be all right now. 

"Leaving so soon Stef?" Darth asked as she walked toward the door. She smirked and leant over the lounge. The programmer looked up at her.

"Look Darth – I never said you could call me Stef."

"Would you prefer 'Agent Mim'?"

"No, only Hummer can call me that."

"Then what would you like me to call you?"

"I guess you can call me Stef."

"I knew you were going to say that. You don't have to leave."

"Well, why should I stay?"

"Watch this with me, I hate watching it alone. I need someone to laugh at all the dumb jokes with me."

"They aren't dumb – they're just Trek." 

"Nuclear wessels," he said with a laugh. 

"Double dumb ass on you. Ok," she said as she jumped over the lounge and relaxed in the opposite corner to him. Shifting around in the plush leather she caught Darth smiling and she was pretty sure it wasn't at the movie.

She was glad she didn't have to kill him.

With Stevie back and these new allies, she had the feeling that things were finally looking up.

"Hey – you want some popcorn?" he asked as the movie progressed.

"Agents don't eat."

"Sorry."

"Don't, not can't – I can eat when I want."

"Good, I'll go get it." 

"No need," she said, as she required a bowl full of popcorn, grabbing a handful of kernels she passed the bowl down to him. Accepting the bowl, he caught her hand before she would withdraw it. "What?" 

"Nothing much," he said as he looked at her palms. "There's so much detail here. I never thought…I mean it's very cool."

"Thanks," gently he pushed her fingers down until she made a fist.

"It feels so real."

"I am real."

"I know," he said as he smiled at her. She had wanted to pull her hand back the instant he had grabbed it, a reaction, but now she wasn't so sure.

It felt nice.

"You want to see something really cool?" He nodded. She looked down at herself and made a requirement. A couple of seconds later she had no suit and no skin, she was a being made of code. Standing up in shock, he was speechless. Standing, she cocked her head to the side, "well?" 

"I…I…wicked."

Requiring back her skin and suit she smirked. "Glad you think so."

"If you've finished showing off Mimosa, we have to get back. She looked over to him, she was so glad to see him smiling again, she nodded.

"See ya Darth," she called as they walked out the front door.  

Darth sighed as the front door shut. Cray leaned over the lounge and grabbed a handful of popcorn. "I didn't see this before, where'd you find it?"

"We don't have any food – we have to go shopping."

"Then where'd you get it?"

"Mimosa gave it to me, pulled it right out of thin air."

"Don't tell me you're falling for an agent. You're suicidal Darth, you tell her that and she'll snap your neck." 

"Come on, we're on the same side now."

"There are plenty of normal girls around. You don't need to go after a program."

"She's more than a program."

 "You're a programmer and she's a program, don't you think that's a little weird?"

'I don't think so. Like I've got a chance anyway."

"Chance for what exactly? How far are you thinking? It's not like you can settle down and get a dog, have kids and like that."

"Shut up Cray."

"You just want to get laid before I do. Every other guy I know that's your age has had at least one girlfriend…close girlfriend. I wouldn't be surprised if you make out with your computer." 

The young man didn't even see the punch before it hit him in the face. "Get your mind out of the gutter kid," Darth said before storming out of the house.

_So what? _He thought as he walked down the street. So what if he'd never had a girlfriend for more than a couple of weeks? That the most he had ever gotten was a kiss goodnight before being left for some better-looking guy. Some toned guy with a cool car and lots of money. Someone who didn't live in his computer.

Before he had been freed he had spent hours in front of his computer. He was a programmer, it was what he did. He worked out of his home as that was where he worked the best. 

There hadn't seemed to be anyone for him. Then he had been freed, never having lived in Zion the only three girls around had been Pandora, Phoenix and Niq. 

Pandora was Ryder's girl; Phoenix was always talking about one of her old boyfriends or getting a new one when she was in Zion, besides she was much older than he was and then there was Niq.

He had never thought of Niq like that. She was more of a sister. Everyone on the Exodus was a close family. 

But this human-agent wasn't like anyone he'd ever met before. She was quick-minded, intelligent, funny. Not model-beautiful – far from the airhead blonds that dominated the media he still thought she was beautiful. There was more to her than a pretty face and her short brown, no nonsense hair just added to that image.

Cray was right; he was in love with an agent.

Agents, the scourge of the resistance. The cold-blooded killers. The soulless programs…none of that was true. Maybe of other agents but not of the ones he had met. The boss agent who had a daughter he loved enough to risk his life for, or so he had learned from her while she was recouping in the med bay on the ship.

Agents with humor, with hearts and warm blood as he had found out as he had held her hand. It felt more real than he every could have imaged. 

*****

"Hummer open up!" Stef yelled at his door in the hallway. She had nothing to do back at the Agency and she really needed to talk to someone and with Smith on the mend the hippy was the only person she trusted enough.

After five solid minutes if beating on his door she realized that he wasn't home. Damn. Leaning against the wall and slumping down to the floor in an ungraceful pile she sighed.

She needed to know what the hell was going on. 

She couldn't be in love, it was impossible. She'd never been in love as a human and now as an agent…oh screw the mainframe, that wasn't the point.

The point was that she was Stef Mimosa; love had never seemed to be on the cards for her. She'd never had a boyfriend; the only guys in her life were the anonymous geeks in the net cafés that she had frequented in the months before all this had happened.

So why did she feel so strange?

It could be a code error, she could get Jones to give her a look or require a self-diagnostic. But she knew that it wasn't digital, it was emotional.

She liked Darth, damn it she did. She had to admit it to herself at the very least. Be true to yourself before anyone else. 

She liked his smile, his sense of humor, he was cute. _God, I'm making him sound like a Gary-Stu, _she chided herself. She had to forget about him, it was impossible that he would…could feel the same way about her. She was just a program to her, so what if he'd smiled at her a couple of times. 

He probably did that to all the girls.

Why did life had to suck?

*****

_Damn it, if it kills me I'm going to tell her something_, Darth decided as he walked toward the Agency. He could have gotten a cab or a limousine but he needed the walk. Beside, it gave him time to think on exactly he was going to say to her.

Knowing the security guards would need some ID, he pulled out his wallet out of his pocket. It had been nice of them to provide them with appropriate ID so that there wouldn't be any trouble with the human authorities. Tripping on some uneven concrete, it went flying a couple of feet.

Not bothering to stand, he walked a couple of steps on his knees and went to pick it up. As he went to grab it a slim hand picked it up.

He looked up to see a pretty young woman. "You dropped this," she said as he rose off the ground. "Ouch," she said as she looked him up and down. "I hope you didn't hurt anything…important."

"I'm fine," Darth replied, she was kind of scary.

"Yes, yes you are. My name's Anne but you call me," she licked her finger and sss'd the air.

"Anne are you coming or not?" A dark haired recruit asked impatiently from the door.

"Yeah Peter, in a minute. Are you coming in here?"

"Yeah – I'm…"

"Good, at least you aren't a rebel."

"Actually…" he started as she slid her arms under his and wrapped them around his back. 

"Are you bored? I'm bored. Want to not be bored together?"

"Um…"

"You never even told me your name."

***

Stef had shifted to the alley near the Agency after leaving the backdoors. What the hell was she going to do?

She wasn't ready to forget about him, not just yet anyway.

Walking out of the alley immediately reconsidered that last thought. It would have something to do with seeing him in the arms of Recruit Anne. And he didn't seem to mind.

Of course, why would he? Anne, though her file read like a soap opera she was beautiful, sexy and smarter than the average brick but by no means a brain.

Probably perfect for him.

Oh, and one more thing. Something important. She was human, pure and simple human. Not some weird experimental human-program. 

Turning away she walked away from the Agency.

***

"My name is Darth," he said. That second she let him go and shoved him back a couple of paces.

"As in Star Wars? That is so lame," turning on her hells she walked through the front doors of the Agency with Peter. Darth sighed to himself, looking down the street he saw Stef walking away.

"Hey Stef – wait up!" he called as he ran down the sidewalk after her.

***

~ ~ "Love is nothing but trouble," or so said her aunt Pam. Then again, Pam had had more boyfriends than anyone else Stef could remember. 

Pam had raised Stef after her mum had died. Pam was good and kind, never angry with her but Stef had always felt that for the large part Pam had been…absent. She had never come to anything at her school; she had her own life to run. That was one of the main reasons she had moved out, at least that way she knew she was alone instead of just feeling like it.

"Wait up!" she heard Darth yell from behind her. She stopped and turned back and waited for him to catch up. She wiped as much of the expression and emotion off her face as she could. "Yes?"

"I was looking for you."

"You seemed to have no trouble finding Recruit Anne."

"That scary chick that latched onto me? She thought my name was lame." 

"Darth or Tyler?"

"No one calls me Tyler except my parents."

"Why were you looking for me?"

"Um…" he hadn't actually figured out what he had been going to say yet. He thought he would have chickened out by now. "Um."

Stef waited for him to say something. What was he going to say? He couldn't be going to say…no, of course not.

He swallowed, "I just wanted to say thank you. You freed us from the war. Saved is probably a better word."

Oh. "It wasn't all me you know."

"I know, but you're like the ambassador for your side. They wouldn't have even considered it if it weren't for you."

"You're welcome." He smiled, that wasn't what he wanted to say but it would do for the moment. He could say it but instead he turned away.

"Darth!" she called before she knew what she was doing.

"Yeah?" he asked hopefully.

"Want to do something?" Smiling, he nodded.

The End. 

Not quite. There's an epilogue that I added.


	7. Epilogue

**Title: **Frames of Reference: Epilogue 

**Author: **Stormhawk

**Rating: **PG

**Notes: **First epilogue that I've ever written. Yeah, I know it's short and mainly dialogue but I wanted to write this.****

**Word Count: **670****

**Please Read and Review.**

"Well, what do you want to do?" He asked.

"I actually have no idea." She admitted, she had just called out to him because she hadn't wanted him to leave.

"Want to back to the mansion and watch a movie?"

"Sounds like a great idea." Anyway, it was – probably what she would have thought of if she hadn't been trying to figure out if she was in love with him.

"Want to walk or catch a cab?"

"I have something else in mind." Why bother doing it the usual way when you were an agent?

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Hold on."

"To what exactly?" Stef smirked and shifted them both back to the mansion. Now that he was plugged back in she could shift him. Looking around his new surrounds, "that was cool."

"It's called shifting. Just another trick."

"Damn, what else can you do?"

Shrugging, "you'll find out." Walking into the living room, they found that Cray had taken over the TV and was demolishing what was left of the popcorn. He frowned when he saw Darth.

"You came back." He hadn't expected the programmer so soon, they were still friends, Cray was just at a difficult age where he loved to argue with everyone.

"Outski or I'll punch you again." Cray gulped and went up toward his room. Stevie was coming down the stairs at the same time.

"Is there any food here? I haven't checked yet." She'd been too busy lying on her soft bed and talking to her dad. It was so perfect to be home again, away from the cold dark real world. She was where she belonged, back to her normal life.

"Nah, we have to go shopping."

"Damn it."

"You could always ask that agent to pull something out of thin air – her popcorn isn't bad."

"But Stef went back when my dad left."

"No, she's downstairs with Darth."

"Thanks Cray," she said with a smile, he was the same age as her. That was good. Walking down the stairs she found the other two in a discussion on what to watch.

"Hey Stef."

"Hey Stevie," she said giving the human girl a hug. She was the closest thing she'd ever had to a sister. "Did I tell you I'm glad you're home?"

"Only about a hundred times. Can I ask you a favor?"

"You may." 

"Happy meal, please? Two actually, I think Cray could use one."

"No problem kid," she thought for a second and two happy meals appeared.

"Isn't this breaking some sort of trademark/copyright rule?" Darth asked with a grin.

"Shh…just don't tell them."

"Deal. If you get some more popcorn." 

"You guys going to watch a movie?"

"Yeah Stevie, want to join us?" She wanted to spend time with Darth but she was not going to abandon Stevie. Darth was Darth but Stevie was her family, well not really but close enough.

"Yeah! Do you know the real world doesn't have TV?" It had been high on her list of what she'd missed.

"I know. Take Cray's lunch up to him and then come back down." Stevie nodded and walked back up the stairs.

"Well Stef, what do you want to watch?" Darth asked as he settled down on the lounge. 

"You're the one who's been without TV for years, what do you want to watch?"

"You'll probably think it's stupid but…Back to the Future Part Three."

"That's not stupid." 

"Ok then." She's perfect – she's known me for less than two weeks and she understands me. Damn it that she could never feel the same way about me. Sitting at one of the lounge, he watched her as she required a copy of the video and pushed it into the VCR. Sitting down at the other end of the lounge, they waited for Stevie.

The teenage girl returned a second later. Smiling as she dug into her French fries she nodded. Controlling the remote, Darth pressed play.

Stef sighed happily. Life could be very good sometimes.

The end. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Next fic – an Agent Brown Piece, promise


End file.
